Maserati 5000 GT with body by Pietro Frua at the Salon de l‘Auto in Paris, 1962. Chassis Number 103.048
Image from the Past
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Maserati 5000 GT with body by Pietro Frua at the Salon de l‘Auto in Paris, 1962. Chassis Number 103.048
I was told that this car was driven by the Shah of Persia, now Iran, can you please confirm this?
Yes, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, aka the Shan of Iran, did indeed have a similar Maserati. In fact it was under his specifications that the 5000 GT was initially created.
His car, Chassis Number 103.002, with body by Touring, looks vastly different from the Frua design, as you can see here:
http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/5000gt/5000gt-013a.jpg
I just saw a Frua-bodied 5000GT today at the Blackhawk Museum. Very similar to the Quattroporte I. I was told that it was the first car (ever) with rectangular headlights. Does that sound right?
BTW, I dig your blog.
Cheers.
Thank you for your comment.
Although the Frua-bodied 5000 GT was certainly one of the earliest, the very first vehicle to use these Cibié rectangular headlamps was the Citroën Ami 6 which was introduced in April of 1961:
http://autouniversum.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/image-from-the-past-les-amis/
Some credit the German Ford Taunus 17M, also introduced in 1961, with having premiered Hella rectangular lamps, but to my eye they are oval-shaped rather than rectangular:
http://autouniversum.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/suddenly-its-1960/17m-p3/